Ghosts and Pretty Poison
by Nara Merald
Summary: One girl. One limb. One more for Remembrence. There is a place for children who need to get better. They play games there, lots of different games. Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood.


**Pretty Poison: Ghosts**

**Summary:** .One girl. One Limb. One more for remembrence.Pretty Poison: There is a place for children who need to get better. They play games there, lots of different games. Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood.

The blond girl sat in the cubical, for once, not drugged for the game but eerily alert. She couldn't escape because the locks deliberately were too high on the door for a child to reach, but right now, she didn't need to escape. She was a strange child, in both looks and temperament, sick, they called her. A child that was never good enough. A child who didn't wear the jewels. Which was why she had to keep them hidden, always keep them hidden.

Her blonde hair had grown slightly straggly, almost opposite of the elaborate ringlets her mother liked to force it into, her normally summer sky eyes lashed with sapphire.  
This was the part of the game she didn't like, the only part she didn't like when she was left alone like this.  
Turning around on her seat cautiously, slumped protectively as if shying away from being viciously hit, she reached out with her mind, hoping for nothing, hoping for an answering blankness on the web…

It hit her with a terrible force, hunching her over, causing her to curl up for a moment, absorbing the shock of the impact. The sapphire eyes that looked up were not a child's, but haunted beyond her years. Curling her fists, she clawed desperately at the narrow bed she was restrained to.

_Dannie_. After the raw suffering it and was absorbed, she could feel it, every moment. She tried to reach out, tried to help but she couldn't find the tangled threads that were Dannie's mind, couldn't hold on properly because the pain was causing Dannie to block her out.  
"Dannie!" She cried, choked out. The thick carpet muffled the sounds of screams, so there was no way anyone would hear her soft plea.  
The pain!  
She clutched at her leg, sensing the pain flowing from the body as if it were her own. Dannie felt strange to her this time, but it was a familiar strange. So, it was Safframate, not pain blocking her contact. Tears running helplessly down her face, she bit into the pillow to muffle her screaming. _Dannie_!

Not again, not again… so much pain, so much death… so much taint lingered in this place. They locked her away, left her in here because they didn't care about her. Oh, they said it was for her benefit, but they didn't believe her when she told them about Dr Carvay. Dr Carvay only wanted to cause pain, he was no healer! She wasn't lying! Was she? They said Unicorns didn't exist, after all, and she'd seen them, hadn't she?

Hadn't she?

The pain increased, but so did the numbness, the sense of disconnection. The horror in the mind she was reaching for started to overpower her, enough to make her have trouble breathing. They didn't know her. Breathe in. They didn't love her. Breathe out. "…_troublesome child_…" Breathe in. "…_there to help you_…" Breathe out. "…_you're sick_…"  
Sick.  
Was she sick?  
The tears froze on her face as slowly the room grew colder. _Dannie… Dannie!_ With a last, muted cry of horror the link snapped and the room was coated in a thin layer of ice, it's occupant staring blankly at the wall, chest heaving as she struggled for air, struggled to find herself amongst all that overwhelming pain and all of the nothing, because Dannie was gone now.

She was not sick. Carvay was sick!

But they wouldn't believe her. They never believed her. _Sick girl to make up stories, sick girl to make up lies!  
_The lock turned, and those eyes flashed from agonised sapphire to dull summer sky in an instant before the Uncle who entered.  
"Well well, we've got a treat for you all tonight." Uncle Kartane said mockingly, then glanced around the room, shivering, unsettled. Why was it so cold? She let her body be dragged along roughly, ignoring as his hands ghosted down her body, touched her in places she didn't want to be touched.  
Annoyed at the lack of reaction, Uncle Kartane dropped her in her seat and moved for one of the girls laced on Safframate, laughing cruelly as the drugged girl rubbed herself against him desperately, Uncle Kartane playing with her and teasing her, prolonging the torture.  
She glanced up, subdued, sombre as the other terrified girls who knew something had happened, just not what. The newest girl cried for her mother, and was slapped harshly across the face. New girl was from the streets, her parents had sold her because they had no money, they were starving. New girl was not expected back.

One of the Uncles mockingly bought out a platter, larger than usual. Something about it made her stomach curl again. It felt _wrong_. The panic was building in her now, threatening to burst free in a scream, but she tensed and bit down on her lip hard enough to make it bleed, hard enough to silence the scream. The Uncle put the tray down, and all the girls were forced into their seats. When she saw it, she understood, and fought, fought her stomach to appear calm. She fought not to slide into the Twisted Kingdom.

"We're having leg tonight… courtesy of Dannie." Uncle Bobbie laughed maliciously, paying her no heed out of all of them, his own family and he enjoyed her pain. He didn't care about her, after all. He sent her in here, knowing. He was an Uncle, after all.  
Leg. Dannie. Leg. _Dannie!_

How could it be anyone's but Dannie's leg on the table for them all to eat?

And then she looked at the severed limb, grotesque and blackened. One of the Uncles cut it, carved it with a laugh and she saw the juices ooze out, could see a vein. Her stomach rebelled before she could prevent it, she fell to her hands and knees and vomited on the floor, retching until there was nothing left in her stomach, tears streaming down her face as one of the Uncles laughed and kicked her in the side, his boot bruising her ribs.  
"NOOOO!" Rose wailed, pushing back from the table and trying to run, only to be caught by the other Uncles. Some of the other girls were crying, Celia throwing up too, but Celia never made it to the floor, vomiting on her own plate.  
Jasmine wet herself from fear and Uncle Kartane pushed her down in her own pool of urine. New Girl didn't understand what was going on, couldn't. She'd been here but a day, and looked at the soiled girls with worry.

"Do you want some roast?" Uncle Bobbie taunted. New girl didn't get food much.  
"…Yes!" gasped New girl, barely restraining herself from reaching for it.  
"Don't!" Rose shouted, then was silent as Uncle Rosier growled and used a club to knock her unconscious, a line of blood trickling from the prone body on the floor.  
New girl hesitated, unsure.  
"If you want to eat for the rest of this week, you eat this now!" Uncle Bobbie threatened seductively, a sick smile winding it's way onto his features as he stared at New girl.

Still on the floor, she watched as New girl accepted the slice quickly, watched panting, breathing hard as if she'd run a marathon.

As the Uncles watched eagerly, New girl tasted it, chewing it warily.  
Her stomach rebelled and she dry retched again and again, New girl sensing something was wrong but not understanding and too afraid to stop eating with all the attention on the food. The Uncles watched with unparalleled sadistic pleasure.  
Finally New girl could eat no more, and the Uncles drifted out from boredom, choosing their girls and forcing the hearth witches to clean up after the various soiled girls and the room.

New girl looked to the rest, and only she looked at her back, only she was able to look her in the eyes.  
"Why were you sick?" New girl asked unsurely.  
"Because I knew what you were eating." She replied, remembering the wave of pain and horror that had assaulted her before.  
New girl looked scared, pale as she waited for the question that would surely come.  
"What…what was I eating?" New girl whispered, afraid of the answer.  
"You were eating Dannie's leg." She answered sadly, softly, leaving the room to go and find Dannie.

The games always ended when she found the ghosts.


End file.
